Pentagon advisory board member Steve Blank resigns in protest at Trump's recent purge

In the recent turn of events, a member of the US Defense Business Board has resigned in protest at the Trump White House’s purge of the board’s membership, replacing members with arch Trump loyalist and campaign staffers. Last week, outgoing President Donald Trump had pushed out nine members of the Defence Business Board, which is an independent panel of leading outside experts who provide advice to senior Pentagon leaders. The White House replaced the members with Trump allies, including Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager, and David Bossie, a former campaign staffer. 

In light of the recent purge, Steve Blank, in his letter of resignation to acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, wrote that the abrupt termination of more than half of the Defence Business Board and their replacement with political partisans have now put the nation’s safety and security at risk. According to the letter first reported by CNN, even though he said that he is “proud” to welcome the new members, he added that his service to the Department of Defense was a service to the country, not to a party. “I hereby tender my resignation,” he wrote. 

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Trump loyalists replace experienced advisers 

On Friday, the Pentagon had confirmed that nine members of the Defence Business Board had been purged and replaced with Trump partisans. In recent weeks, Trump has pushed out defence advisors and replaced officials with a slew of political loyalists in a wave of disruption as his administration winds to a close. Back in November, Trump had fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Since then, the US President has also ousted at least three other top officials and replaced them with perceived loyalists and targeted two advisory boards. 

The Trump loyalists have replaced former military officers who had decades of experience in the defence industry. While Jen Stewart, the chief of staff to the secretary of defence, James Anderson, the undersecretary of defence for policy and Joseph Kernan, the undersecretary of defence for intelligence and security resigned, theses three important positions were filled by the Trump loyalist, including Anthony Tata, Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Kash Patel. Additionally, the top defence officials overseeing policy, intelligence and task force charged with overseeing the fight against ISIS have also been pushed out as part of the recent purge. 

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